Having read, watched and giggled myself through all of the antics from the recent Bridgestone 500 races with EMRA, when an opportunity to have a craic myself came up, I jumped at it with two hands… Writing this column, I still have a grin on my face from my first experience with EMRA on the Bridgestone 500s – having been riding full time in the No Limits Endurance championship with the rest of the Fast Bikes posy, we were sitting third in the championship and plodding along quite nicely. Now the best part is, the Endurance racing only runs on one day on the Saturday – meaning that wh ..read more

Rd#4 of Bridgestone CB500 racing had been a ‘Battle Royale’ for Charlie and team-mate Gary, who shared the spoils. But Rd#5 was to bring a new adversary to the EMRA race series – not only Fast Bikes magazine’s Carl Stevens on a guest ticket – but the bloody weather. I trundled up the M5 to Mallory Park on August 10 knowing that this would be a very different round to those before – my bike had been with Chris getting upgraded, the majority of our support were holidaying and I had a new teammate for the round, Carl Stevens, fresh from a No Limits three hour endurance at Cadwell Park. A ..read more

A fellow Bridgestone 500 racer put the following post up on the EMRA Facebook group last night, a couple of hours after Rd#4 had drawn to a close – “had a coming together with a bike in race 8 at the hairpin, I stayed on but other guy crashed. Just wanted to check he was okay. Anyone know who he was?”  The post was from Mark Ssawyer #142, I remember him wandering the paddock apologetically looking for the guy on a red bike that he had hoofed off – I have a red bike so he naturally came to see if it was me. It wasn’t, it was Ste Sewell who owned up to being the “chubby bloke” as he ha ..read more

…and it all started so bloody well. I had a stroke of luck searching for a motorhome after Round 1. Despite living close I am not missing out on the paddock life and sleeping in the back of my van prompted a purchase. You don’t make money keeping it in ISA’s nowadays anyway so was greeted by Charlie and the chaps in my new IVECO motorhome. Factory. But that, along with knocking up a proper breakfast for the lads was where my luck ran out and apparently bad luck comes in 3s? Well, that’s what the myth says, but for Round 2 of EMRA’s Bridgestone 500’s and Mini-twin racing it came in wav ..read more

I wasn’t ready for this; I don’t mean the actual racing of the Bridgestone 500s with EMRA, but the rollercoaster ride of emotions that a single weekend can throw at you. Round two started well enough, team-mate Gaz rolled into the paddock on the Saturday evening in his new toy, a motorhome with all of the necessary mod-cons including workshop in the back for his bike etc. This is a purchase that we all benefitted from, especially me who had an instant shelter for my bike and no need to struggle with an awning as Jimmy Reynolds was doing to our right and Nick Hyde and James Barley from LB ..read more

It finally arrived, round 1 of the Bridgestone 500’s with EMRA. Are we ready?  Image: David Chapman The bike is, but I’m not!  I really don’t think it matters how many times a race meeting appears my nerves will always stay the same, as were Charlie’s. Your thoughts, some negative, some positive, just mess around with your mind to an extent you overthink absolutely everything. I even stopped on route to Mallory to check I had put the bloody bike in! Once in the paddock though, I tend to relax more.  The atmosphere is great and the energy in there is enough to power the bikes on ..read more

Round 1 of the Bridgestone 500 series hosted by the East Midlands Racing Association (EMRA) has been and gone and we are hurtling toward Round 2 on the 12th May very quickly. Image: Charlie Grainger The first outing of the year was a massive learning experience for both Gary and myself starting as we were for our first full season of racing. I have quite a journey to Mallory, thus shirked much of set up which included my bike which had had some last minute prep from our chief spanner Lezzo, replacing a seal that I had blown the weekend before. The entourage were all present, Lezzo ..read more

With less than a week to go our intrepid Rookie Racers, Gary and Charlie, have been doing their final runs, checks, tweaks and even paint jobs for the East Midlands Racing Associations (EMRA) ‘Bridgestone 500’ Championship. 31-03-2019 Mallory Park trackday photographs Here’s a quick catch up with the guys to see where their heads are at. Gary: “The build-up over the winter has been long, round 1 seemed light years away but here we are, a couple of days to go and the nerves are beginning to tingle, by Sunday morning I will be shaking like a shitting dog. However, I think Char ..read more

There are two very different sides to the team Bridgestone / Fast Bikes awning in terms of our CB500 race preparation. We are now three weeks away from Round 1 of EMRA at Mallory and Gary is tested, up to speed, focussed and chomping at the bit as he has already documented here. I too share his enthusiasm, but this is tainted with the stark realisation that I have not tested my bike yet. Like Gary’s it has been stripped powder coated and rebuilt, yet unlike Gary’s it hasn’t had a proper shakedown yet. This will come on the 31st March, finally booking myself a track-day with No Limits ..read more